Bigger Than Life [1956] – Nicholas Ray

Nicholas Ray’s Bigger Than Life shows the absurdity of domestic ideals by enhancing them through the use of an experimental hormone, cortisone. It also portrays the irresponsibility and carelessness of medical professionals in the use of this dangerous drug. Ed Avery (James Mason) is prescribed cortisone after being diagnosed with polyarteritis nodosa, a rare inflammation of the arteries. A family man and respected school teacher, he takes the drug without question and the results are nightmarish.

As he increases his dosage and slowly becomes addicted to the hormone, simple aspects of his life are enhanced and blown frighteningly out of proportion, particularly his family life. He declares his wife Lou (Barbara Rush) as worthless and contributing nothing to his life, a reflection of her already suppressed position in society. A new emphasis in Ed’s mind is placed on his son Richie (Christopher Olsen), with an objective to turn him into the most upstanding citizen possible without regard for the boy’s own health. He denounces public education as giving confidence to unintelligent children who don’t deserve the attention. These sick epiphanies certainly show the dangers of unknown drugs as well as the doctors carelessness to prescribe them, but all of the changes within Ed reflect real suppressed feelings within himself, than can then be mirrored among most suburban middle class families. Though not as extreme as this case, most families are filled with irrational and immoral feelings toward family members although they’re largely suppressed and not faced. This is a problem recognized by Nicholas Ray and he uses the hormone cortisone as a catalyst to display it.

Further Reading:

Bigger than Life: Somewhere in Suburbia by B. Kite
Bigger than Life @ The Criterion Collection